#[Those were also some really tough rps mechanically]

[ask-richard-jackdaw]

Out of character: thank you @pandanscafanfiction for the wholesome and sweet Gauntdaw rp we shared, even if we didn't get to explore far 🤍 Your Ominis was sweet and charming, quick witted and very alluring. The softness (and playfulness they shared early on) made Richard feel like he is more than just an unfortunate, destined to exist alone soul. You are the Ominis of my Richard's heart.

[utilitycaster]

I'm curious on how you would rank the CR cast in terms of how well they understand the mechanics of dnd. Because I agree with something you said a while ago, which is that Sam somehow has this rep as being "the mechanics guy", but I feel like that just isn't true honestly. Not that he's terrible, but I think he does tend to like having one "go-to" move like bigbys hand or sneak attack, and seems to be struggling a little now that he has more choice. And perhaps controversially, I think Marisha has come such a long way in terms of mechanics. Like, sure, Keyleth had some bad moments, but Marisha mostly killed it as Beau and she's killing it now as Laudna, yet she gets very little respect for it I feel.

(answering this along with this from earlier today):

So in terms of strongest, Matt. I think DM-ing is the fastest throw-you-into-the-deep-end way to get good at mechanics, and so an experienced DM generally is excellent at mechanics. We can see it from him as a player, as Dariax or in one shots.

In terms of the rest of the cast, it gets a little murky in that I think everyone but Sam and Ashley is very, very strong (and I have my eye on Ashley because she's catching up fast), and the people I perceive as strongest are in part a matter of my personal taste in how to play/their playstyle beyond just mechanics. As a result I explain a lot of things and this is going to get long so I've put it below a cut just to save your dashes.

Unsurprisingly for followers of this blog, I think Travis is among the top players. I remember sitting with my father watching the boys basketball team at my middle school play a match and he pointed at the team's star player, who I should point out had not hit his growth spurt yet and also iirc never broke like, 5'8" as an adult, and said "that kid has incredible court sense" and anyway Travis has court sense. He asks all those questions because he's thinking about the battle map like, well, an athlete. And as someone who in some small part plays casters because my spatial reasoning is adequate at best, this is really impressive to me. Like, there's a reason he's taken the mobile feat twice, and why he's confident in melee, and this is on top of the fact that he managed to build out a utility hexadin with so many short range teleports, swapping out spells thoughtfully and picking highly useful invocations that also tell the character's story, like, part of why I've been so outright derisive towards the people who have insulted his skills is because this guy recognized Vespin Chloras within seconds. This guy is reading the manuals.

Liam is also among the top players. Hilariously, he exclusively has played Core Four in D&D with two exceptions (Vax's multiclasses and the For Legal Reasons This Is Neither HP nor the Breakfast Club one-shot) so he knows what he likes but he is, to be fair, very good at what he likes, and what he likes is utility casting and fighters and that's the most valid. He is perhaps the strongest at the table at integrating mechanics and story, though Travis and Laura are very close, and like Travis he can handle a highly modular build skillfully and thoughtfully as we've seen with both Caleb and Orym.

Liam and Travis were also the two players I said who I think could at least take a reasonable stab at the Empathy Domain, in that they are both the pragmatists of the group. I think Ashley may be one as well, hence why she's one to watch, but: they are able to quickly make peace with tough decisions or a bad turn and see it through, which, with the finicky nature of the Transfer Suffering feature and the highly RP dependent Sympathetic Bond, is crucial. When will one of them play a cleric for more than like, a two-shot. Please.

I think Taliesin is extremely good at mechanics broadly and has a lot of DM-ing experience and so he's counted in the "very, very good" section with Laura and Marisha here mostly because I happen to also be more of a brutal pragmatist and so that gets extra points, and Taliesin is one of the more optimistic playstyle cast members. He also tends towards min-maxing (obviously for Percy; Caduceus is min-maxed for healing and perception) and I respect that but I prefer the broader utility that Liam and Travis tend to pursue - although Ashton is, mechanically, super fun and has a more diverse array of skills/abilities than many barbarians (though a lot of credit goes to Matt here for the subclass) and I'm excited to see more.

I do have to disagree with the idea that Marisha "got much better". I mean, she has improved at D&D as has the rest of the cast but she was one of the strongest players from the start and the narrative that she's vastly improved since C1 instead of being consistently excellent is outright incorrect. I think people do not appreciate that she was usually the only prepared caster on screen, she was the only person with crowd control while also trying to be the healer and the tank simultaneoulsly, or that druids in 5e are significantly different than in Pathfinder. Like, literally, the only example of a bad Keyleth moment that comes to mind was the Wind Walk in the purple worm fight, and not to keep dunking on Sam but if Sam got a rep for being the mechanics genius for two great moves 3+ years ago it seems, uh, mad fucked up that Marisha still has a reputation for not being great as Keyleth for one bad spell 6 years ago. (In fact, to stop dunking on Sam: most criticisms of Sam and Marisha from C1 should probably stop. If suddenly you're down a sorcerer and usually down a cleric? You get a GENEROUS leeway.) I also was more impressed by Beau than by Laudna in terms of story incorporation - like, eyes of the runekeeper is great but why does she have that, and also I personally believe no warlock should ever have higher wisdom than intelligence unless they multiclassed. A sorcerer/warlock should not be in the business of having a positive wisdom score. Which isn't a knock on Laudna in general - some of this is personal taste and some will be resolved as we learn more - but I need to say that your Marisha mechanics opinions seem really off to me.

I think Laura is quite good and I think everyone who insults Jester's healing is an idiot who listened to Laura complaining and forgot to keep in mind that Jester actually did a great job healing while complaining, up until Caduceus "the healing guy" Clay showed up at which point she pivoted. This is called "responding to what else is going on" and I highly recommend it because mechanics in a vacuum are mere thought exercises. I think Laura is mechanically good but she also I think knows what she wants to do, which is to hit big and hit hard - I think she's aware that certain aspects of mechanics (support casting, tanking) aren't her interests, so she's not quite as strong all-around, but she's very good at what she's interested in. She's also showing a lot of utility as Imogen. Sorcerer is a really good fit for her and she's killing it.

[beetlemancy]

top five Liam RP moments?

1. Vax’s goodbye.    There’s a lot here. Vax’s entire storyline was quite a feat and was so meaningful to so many people, but especially to Liam himself. As many of us know but maybe some CR2 critters don’t, this was during a time in his life that was really tough and a lot of what Vax went through was Liam working out his POV on death, family, and the purpose of existence. It was especially moving for those of us who have dealt with this kind of death - the kind that you can see coming. It’s different from other kinds, and so rarely portrayed as beautifully and as truthfully, ugliness and all, as Vax’ildan. Because of all that, this scene is still monumentally heartwrenching and is my go-to cry catalyst when I need to parse through my own darkness.

2. The Wedding Gift     This came after several VM oneshots where we were aching for Vax. We knew it could never happen because both Liam and Matt never wanted to do a disservice to the story. Yet it was still like being unable to scratch an itch - watching everyone but Liam get to play in Vox Machina’s skins again was SO frustrating. And so when this happened, it was in equal parts amazing and horrific - perfectly Vax in every way. Liam’s choices made here were especially strong. The voice being familiar, but different. His movements being slower, more fluid, but still so clearly Vax. His distance, but then the way he sank into his sister, the way he wrapped Keyleth up in his arms. Liam also made an excellent choice in playlist for this one-shot. Seriously, its genuinely spooky how well they all fit. He also spoke about how he was inspired by the Stephen King short story ‘The Jaunt’ for when he thinks about what Vax is going through. I highly recommend you read it if you can handle existential spookiness - it makes everything about Vax hit different, especially the playlist song ‘Far From Home.’

3. Caleb and the Scourger | (both times)     I have earlier Caleb moments that I think are fantastic RP moments, but it wasn’t until this went down that it was all skyrocketed up to another level entirely. This was our longest taste of how he decided to play with the fact that his native language is Zemnian. He loses the German accent and he loses the filler words and the stumbling. We see Caleb as how he actually is - frighteningly brilliant, witty, and biting. Underneath all that Common and Anxiety is a weapon, after all - but with that anger, such a gentleness and a compassion for his brothers and sisters. The emotions never feel contrary. Yes, they are complicated, but they make perfect sense. Plus, it never fails to impress me how he can come up with things like “Some of us get tired of macabre fairy tales. So you enjoy your mouthful of lies when they choke it out of you” and “I don’t know how my brothers and sisters could stomach wearing that mantle of loyalty knowing it was woven so thoroughly from sin.’ Like, go off, boo.

4. The Experience     I’ve talked about this scene before, but you’ve given me an excuse to only focus on Liam here. This is… possibly in my top five clips that I rewatch the most often. It’s just. so. fucking. funny. And I live for watching all of the cast, but especially Liam, eat up the crowd’s energy and place it right back into the RP. Before he was dealt his particular fate, Vax was always a trickster first. He never lost this, not even later on when things got very dark. I appreciated this. Gallows humor is a common coping mechanism for those of us who can see the end a little more clearly. In this case, I just really appreciate the word play. There is a theory that Liam is actually The Bard himself, reincarnated, and this scene is definitely one that showcases that potential. The fey chaos in his ability to improv all of this doublespeak, purposefully weaving ‘accidental’ innuendo into every line, never ceases to amaze.

5. Liam and his Badass Cleric Ladies     This might be cheating but its something I wanted to talk about in particular - Liam gives his other characters SUCH life and such fascinating differences and I want mostly to talk about the body language and vocal aspect of his RP. I made a big post about the whole casts’ body language forever ago and it was super fun. But to this day it still impresses the shit out of me. These two are my favorite one-shot characters of his but they’re also a fun way to show the subtleties of difference and how important those differences are to the characters. On surface level, they’re both Liam playing a cleric, a woman, and they have similar accents. But even context aside, they feel different, and its due to the quirks in body language and vocal quality he gave them.Liam as Lieve’tel Toluse : floaty, slower, she has all the time in the world and she’s seen more shit than you. She’s looked Death in the face and decided to have a chill life. She is calm in the face of rage and has practice doing so. It’s reflected in the ease in which she holds herself and how she talks. Tall, but relaxed. Flirty, but like she’s not worried about the result. He gives her grace. She speaks gently, but loud enough to be heard by all. Her body language is open too - she’s there for support and makes it known in how she presents herself.Liam as Jayne Merriweather: a bit like Lieve’tel in that she floats in a similar manner, both physically and vocally. But Jayne stops. Like, she will find a spot and stare daggers. She cackles when she can’t contain her madness. Her quiet isn’t relaxed - its itchy. Listening to and watching her is like watching a cat about to pounce but being always stuck in the tension just before it does. She’s got a devilish smile and you can almost see the metaphorical flames behind her eyes. Liam plays her most of the time with an expression somewhere in the middle of amusement and ‘come at me bro.’ Jayne is hungry - mostly for chaos. Although her accent is essentially the same as Lieve’tel, her voice is a bit higher, and more sinister. She’s also not as slow as Lieve’tel, just more deliberate. Her confidence doesn’t come from being steady. It comes from always being one step away from a murder spree.

[thememcry]

THE POSITIVE & NEGATIVE; Mun & Muse - Meme.

fill out & repost ♥ This meme definitely favors canons more, but I hope OC’s still can make it somehow work with their own lore, and lil’ fandom of friends & mutuals. Multi-Muses pick the muse you are the most invested in atm.

My muse is:   canon / oc / au / canon-divergent ( potentially ) / fandomless

Is your character popular in the fandom?  YES / NO. 

Is your character considered hot™ in the fandom?  YES / NO / IDK.

Is your character considered strong in the fandom?  YES / NO / IDK. (apparently there are youtube comments circulating about how boring or weak aerith is. if an explanation needs be provided for how strong of a woman, character, and fighter she is in her own regard then the point of the character is missed entirely.)

Are they underrated?  YES / NO.

Were they relevant to the main story?  YES / NO.

Were they relevant to the main character?  YES / NO / THEY’RE THE PROTAG.

Are they widely known in their world?  YES / NO.  (the big baddies know of her, the little baddies know to look for her and the heroes just learned of why she’s important).

How’s their reputation?  GOOD / BAD / NEUTRAL.

How strictly do you follow canon?

      it depends entirely on the person / character i’m writing and what verse they’re in. when someone approaches me and doesn’t specify a verse i give them main verse (ff7r) and follow canon as closely as i’d like. but most of my threads diverge from canon for exploration or other purposes. i’m not concerned with how close to canon my aerith is ------obviously i’d like people to hear her voice when i have her speak, or see her performing the actions i have her commit to but i’d also like this interpretation to be my own. so when someone reads a piece of my writing they say oh yes, that’s kay’s aerith definitely.

SELL YOUR MUSE! Aka try to list everything, which makes your muse interesting in your opinion to make them spicy for your mutual.  

      i could make an entire post about all of the things i love about aerith gainsborough on its own, so i’ll try not to let this be too rambly.

      she is such a three-dimensional character and she always has been. people expect just to meet the damsel in distress, to rely on cloud and company to help her out at every twist and turn. square even did a good job selling her appearance: soft pinks, gentle features, and when she was given a voice actor the first few times they always went the route of someone who had a lighter lilt. to the first glance she is very much all of those things. except it’s not all she is.

      aerith wears masks to cover the horrendous things that happened to her as a child: experimentation, the shocking loss of her mother after escaping it, crushing loneliness, an awareness that she was different and nobody around who understood the properties of that difference to explain it to her in a way that didn’t terrify her. she heard the planet, could tell when people passed away and rejoined the lifestream, surrounded by all of these voices yet so fucking alone. and did she let it make her bitter? did she become angry or cold, jaded or cruel? no. aerith is kind and giving without being too self-sacrificing and without making her boring. she’s not as innocent as people are made to believe.

      look at her first interactions with cloud. she flirts mercilessly with him, and then you discover she did it to zack, too. she’s not afraid to express herself in any fashion and she’s unapologetic about how forward and positive she is. despite all of the shitty things that happened to her, she’s still all of these great things. she’s scrappy, she can be a brat (ask the turks!) and she blooms under the cover of oppression that she lives. sure, she’s in a beautiful house with a loving mother figure but she’s in the slums and she’s being watched constantly by some part of the company that wants to see her dissected or worse.

      and she’s divine. no, literally. of course it takes her death for the realization of that divinity to really be understood by the fan base and even by her own party, but once aerith dies she becomes an actual deity. it’s sad that you don’t get her in your party any more but it’s obvious how much she affected everyone she worked with (and even those she didn’t). they spend the rest of the game avenging her, they spend the rest of the game explaining their grief over her loss, promising her death won’t be in vain. and once that’s done? there’s an entire movie where cloud deals with his grief over everything, but mainly his self-appointed guilt over her death. as if he could have changed it? i mentioned to @seraphicwiing​ in a conversation (an au one) about sephiroth and aerith ------he didn’t kill or break her. he gifted her divinity.

      so this sweet flower girl goes from a first appearance damsel in distress to an actual conduit of the planet, watching over her friends and everyone else from the spiritual plane of it. controlling the lifestream itself to rise up and crush back meteor.

      if you don’t like her by this point, it’s a lost cause. honestly, just go play pacman or something.

Now the OPPOSITE, list everything why your muse could not be so interesting (even if you may not agree, what does the fandom perhaps think?).  

      maybe strong female leads aren’t your cup of tea? perhaps you really wanted aerith to maintain her softness and have none of the bite or edge that i argue make her interesting?

      some people want a strong woman to be something like paine in ffx-2, or lightning in ffxiii, or even lulu in ffx itself ... dark and perhaps a bit brooding, angry with someone or something. they can be gentle but they’re mostly a razor sharp edge threatening to slice anyone who tries to get close to them. aerith is arguably a hot take on the stronger female leads ... even compared to tifa. you don’t doubt that a woman who fights with her fists is a tough, bad bitch ... but aerith isn’t physically strong. she’s the image of a princess honestly and that’s just not what some people want to see or deal with.

      arguably her personality can come off a bit strong. she’s snarky and, as i said, a tease. she can be bratty from time to time and that can absolutely be read as irritating, especially to someone whose looking for negative personality traits to focus on at a first glance.

      and a lot of people just see her as a love interest to cloud. and she is, i won’t deny that. it’s been further addressed in the remake with her dream sequence that cloud absolutely has feelings for her. it dredges up the age-old argument from 1997 of: tifa or aerith. why does it have to be or? why can’t he love them both in different ways? or the same way? it’s not like aerith has a lot of time to be the love interest, anyway. we all know how disc 1 ended, by this point.

      perhaps people see her end-game divinity as a deus-ex mechanic. sure, it kind of it. but the game never hid its intentions of why aerith was there. she was always special, we just didn’t know how. she always had holy, we just didn’t know what it meant at the time. but it does seem a bit convenient that right as the meteor is going to crush midgar ------here comes the lifestream, holding it back so holy can stop it! wow, amazing! darn that aerith and her connection to the planet. how awful. maybe cloud could have just braver’d it.

What inspired you to rp your muse?  

      i love her. it’s just that simple. she’s so complex and so different from other characters i tend to gravitate toward. she has a darkness but she’s good, genuinely. i usually go for people who are deeply seeded in some kind of trauma, or are just generally a piece of shit. and aerith certainly has her trauma, but she’s risen above it. she chooses to live her life as much as she can before the ultimate doom clock ticks to 0, you know?

      i admire her beauty. not just her physical beauty (and she is), but the beauty of her as a person. i wish i could be as endlessly positive as she is, even faced against such awful odds. i wish i could be the kind of person who surrounds themselves with people who love them, despite their flaws. but i am very much the opposite of aerith.

      i consider myself endlessly lucky to be a mouthpiece of some kind of version of her. this is a character i’ve had a connection to since i was like, 7 or 9 (and i’m 30 now). the very fact that i get to log in every day and express some form of this wonderful character keeps me connected to her. she has a loud voice in my head, and i think she always had. i think that remake just re-lit the flame for her.

      i wrote her a long time ago, during myspace rp days. but we all know how myspace ended. so i choose to write her now because it feels right. and i really do enjoy having someone who shines so brightly in my head.

What keeps your inspiration going?  

      the same as everyone else, i think: music, clips of the character, art of her ... but mostly? my writing partners. i wouldn’t be anywhere without the people in this site who come to me every day with an interest in my interpretation of aerith. i never expected so many lovely humans to want to see what i can do with her. but i have people dm’ing me on discord every day with ideas or thoughts, with musings or what-if’s ... and it really just keeps this muse so alive for me.

      even though i have a backlog of drafts and inbox things to answer, i can know that they will get done ... it’s just up to me as a human to write things out.

Some more personal questions for the mun.

Give your mutuals some insight about the way you are in some matters, which could lead them to get more comfortable with you or perhaps not.

Do you think you give your character justice?  YES / NO. 

Do you frequently write headcanons?  YES / NO.

Do you sometimes write drabbles?  YES / NO.  (i’d prefer to write out a reply to a solo drabble).

Do you think a lot about your Muse during the day? YES / NO. 

Are you confident in your portrayal?   YES / NO. 

Are you confident in your writing?  YES / NO.

Are you a sensitive person?  YES / NO.

Do you accept criticism well about your portrayal?

      in the proper context. i don’t want someone coming on here and telling me i play aerith wrong because it’s not what she would do canon. that’s cool, i don’t write her strictly canon. but if i’m having doubts and i ask for the feedback, i’m open to it.

Do you like questions, which help you explore your character?  

      always. i am 100% always accepting development questions.

If someone disagrees to a headcanon of yours, do you want to know why?  

      nope. i don’t care if you agree with my headcanons or not. i’m sure there are people who don’t like that i have a ship with a sephiroth, or a reeve, or that i’ve had her mess around with rufus or biggs. i’m sure there are people who despise the way i make her speak to people ... and that’s fine. they’re allowed to. but this is my interpretation of aerith and so far i’m loving everything that i’ve gotten to do with her. especially those things that include character building with others.

If someone disagrees with your portrayal, how would you take it?

      they’re allowed to disagree. they’re also not beholden to follow me. i won’t be upset if they unfollow me. it’s their comfort, after all. and i’d rather spend time on here enjoying myself than either having someone voice their dislike of my interpretation or get vocal about how they’re uncomfortable.

If someone really hates your character, how do you take it?  

      people have really hated aerith since 1997. they’re allowed to have their silly opinions of her. and i’m allowed not to entertain them.

Are you okay with people pointing out your grammatical errors?  

      please do. i’m human and i make mistakes. i’d love to fix them.

Do you think you are easy going as a mun?  

      yes, but i’ve had people mention that i seem a little unapproachable. please approach me. if you want to write with me let me know. if you want to chat ooc with me talk to me. i promise i’m an absolute dimwit on my side of the screen. i’m spacy but i try to be as nice and welcoming as possible. somehow i’ve conned a few friends out of this rpc already with my idiocy, so please please please come chat with me.

That’s about it, congrats for filling out!

[kounkibou]

HC: Nagito’s Parents

After a lot of encouraging from friends and followers, I’m actually going to make this post. It’s something that I’ve alluded to a few times in posts and replies, but I’ve never said outright. I’m aware it’s a “hot take” among people who RP Nagito, and that’s why I’ve been hesitant.

It’s my RP blog, though, so I can do what I want.

So let’s do this. Let’s talk about Nagito’s parents and his relationship with them.

One of the first things I do when I take on a character is think about their upbringing and what sort of things they went through. With Nagito, a lot of it was put out there in his FTEs. He glosses over most of his traumatic experiences, but we can tell that’s just how he deals with stressful situations. He’s been through so many of them that his coping mechanism is to hope for something good afterward, to count on his luck to give him something in return for the misfortune.

I mention this because stating something like watching your parents die horribly in front of you in a matter-of-fact way with a smile just shows how traumatic it was for him.

The hot take in this headcanon is simple. Nagito’s parents loved him, and he loved them. I understand where the opposite comes from as Nagito in the first trial says (Full Disclosure: this is taken from Ultimate Luck and Hope and Despair but he says pretty much the same thing in game.) “I’ve never received a compliment for my appearance before. Not even from my own mother.” I’ve actually noticed that this is really more of a trend in the English-speaking audience as most Japanese artists I’ve seen imply a good relationship with them. I’m not sure if it’s a translation thing because I don’t know enough Japanese to read the text or understand the audio, but it’s something to think about.

My problem with this is it’s such an offhanded comment, and he doesn’t elaborate on it in his FTEs. In fact, from those FTEs, we can infer the opposite. This is something my good friend Nova ( @theultimatemusemess​ ) pointed out to me way back. If Nagito’s parents didn’t love him, why would they take him on a vacation with them? They could afford for someone to look after him while they were gone. If they really didn’t care, they could even just leave him by himself.

I know quite a bit about wills and/or transferring belongings after death, but not much about how it works in other places. However, Nagito received all of their wealth and possessions. We could put this up to inheritance laws designating the child to be the recipient of properties, and Nagito has no other living relatives. However, these two were wealthy. I imagine they either of their own volition or under someone’s advice put a will in place.

Nagito says that his inheritance gave him independence, which is scary considering how young he must have been. He says he was in elementary school. That gives us an age of 6-12. No matter how you swing it, that’s young to be living on your own.

Why does this matter? Nagito was little when his parents died. That’s a large span of age possibilities. Depending on how young he was, he might not remember a lot of his life before. His parents’ death was a big event. Anything before that pales in comparison. Plus, Nagito has lost so many people, he tries to distance himself from everyone. I imagine he tries to belittle his attachment to his parents to protect himself from the grief.

To put it simply, as I said in my tags, Nagito isn’t a reliable narrator in his own story.

That’s all of the canon and albeit limited research I have to offer to excuse my reasoning. Now, let’s get on to the actual headcanon part. I’m going to introduce you guys to Nagito’s parents, who I lovingly put together as I do parents for most of my muses.

All I have as references are doll makers. (This one specifically) In the future, I’m hoping to have actual references for them, but for now, we have this.

Nagito’s Mother

Here’s the ref sheet that I put together for her. It includes a quick rundown of information as well. Note: For both of them, I took colors for skin/hair/etc. from Nagito himself.

As it says on the tin, Miwako is a real estate agent. She’s high up in a particular agency that deals with foreign properties and buyers. As a consequence, she travels quite a bit and speaks several languages. If the agency is experiencing a problem, they ask her to resolve it as she notices details and remembers things that others put in the back of their minds. She’s been known to work herself too hard and fall asleep where she drops. 

On the outside, Miwako is stone faced and looks like she’s locked on and ready to kill. It comes in handy when she’s working, but it hinders her in her social life. She cares about other people and their well-being. It’s just...hard for her to convey that properly. The only people who can easily do that are her husband, son, and close friends.

The only problem is her work doesn’t leave a lot of time for her child, who she loves very much. She carries pictures of Nagito on her person and goes from :| to :D when asked about him. Think of Maes Hughes pulling out tons of pictures of his daughter, and you have a good vision of how Miwako feels about Nagito.

One thing Miwako loves is reading. She funds a local library and donates books once she’s finished with them. Her favorite way to bond with Nagito is to read to him, starting his love of literature. Sometimes, she enlists her husband to do silly voices so they can all spend time together. A few times, she’s accidentally read Nagito bits from her own book (sleepily) before opening a children’s book when she gets in bed. Oops.

It was Miwako’s idea to get a dog. Since both of them worked so much, they wanted their son to have a companion while they were gone. Thus, they got Taiki shortly after Nagito was born. He ended up being keeping track of Nagito, who, as I’ll touch on in another headcanon post, got into trouble and got lost frequently. This stressed both parents out because that’s their baby and he ends up in these terrifying situations too often for comfort.

Miwako is really a nice person. She just finds it hard to communicate with others on a personal level. She loves her family, but she doesn’t have a lot of time for them.

Nagito’s Father

Kozei is an interesting character. His specialty is medical research, something that he got an interest in as he grew older and watched parents, grandparents, etc. decline in health. He wanted to come up with ways to help ease the pain of aging and improve everyone’s quality of life. 

Partially because of his family name and partially because of his own abilities, he rose up in the ranks and ended up at the top. This is something he isn’t always happy about because he hates doing paperwork and going through valid procedures. He also prefers to do things on his own rather than having other people do them for him. Kozei ends up doing actual work more often than his fellow big-wigs would like. He’s dedicated to his work and truly believes in it.

Personality-wise, Kozei is a bit of an airhead. He seems lazy on the surface, not always dressing formally or caring about his appearance. Getting him to brush his hair is an ordeal. He likes to make jokes and keep things lighthearted, one of the ways he was able to break through Miwako’s tough exterior. He’s a little forgetful sometimes, but when it comes down to it, he’ll remember small things like a person’s favorite color or a food they said they liked one time in passing.

Kozei’s work schedule is just as heavy as Miwako’s, but he gets home earlier and doesn’t have to travel as much. Some days when he feels bad about leaving his kid, he takes Nagito with him and sits him at his desk in his own special chair with crayons and paper. Kozei has so many drawings up in his office, and he’s proud of them. His son made those.

He has the more excited personality out of the two. Kozei’s thing is science. Anything science. Chemistry, biology, physics, you name it. He loves scientific advances and will nerd out about them. He’ll lay in bed late at night and talk Miwako’s ear off about something cool that she doesn’t understand. He’ll explain astrophysics to five-year-old Nagito, who just thinks he’s talking funny and laughs.

If you need someone to pick up your spirits, Kozei is your guy. If he believes in something, he believes in it ride or die, and that includes your friendship as well as his medical research.

Kozei and Miwako’s Relationship

How did these two meet? Simply put, Miwako sold Kozei’s father property, and since Kozei’s father was trying to involve him in his affairs as preparation for the future, he was there. They got to know one another, and on the last day they were going to interact, Kozei asked Miwako if she’d like to meet up sometime...possibly over dinner. At first, she had this face like “Are you serious?” but he did this thing where he gestured expectantly at her with this goofy grin that gradually got more nervous as the silence went on. Something about that tickled her funny bone, and she lost it. This nerd was asking her out, and he obviously knew how much of a stretch it was. She had to say yes, you know? He made her laugh.

They actually dated for a few years since their schedules made it hard to meet up a lot. After a few months, Kozei was on board for the long haul, ready to make the big commitment. Miwako was the more cautious one about things, wanting to feel it out before getting too caught up in the romance. He proposed to her after taking her to the same restaurant they went on their first date. (Obvious Spoiler: She said yes.)

They were fairly set financially, and they both wanted to have a child. However, it took quite awhile for pregnancy to happen. Miwako isn’t the best at doing romantic things, so the way she told Kozei was really just...

Miwako: *walks out* Hey, I’m pregnant. Kozei: Oh. Kozei: Wait what?!

As a couple, they have an open, honest relationship. If they have issues, they talk to one another and make sure they’re both on the same page before talking about doing anything big. Kozei tries to make Miwako laugh when she gets stressed. Miwako lets her guard down in front of him because she trusts him, and he’s a sweetheart. If asked, Kozei would tell you that his wife does most of the hard work and is a genius. He’s her biggest fan.

They’re honestly just really supportive of each other and will do anything to make sure the other is happy.

Nagito & His Parents

Like any new parents, they weren’t experts. They did some kind of silly things. Kozei may or may not have forgotten in a sleepy haze to put Baby Nagito in his crib, and the two of them may have had an exchange something like:

Kozei: Where's the baby? Miwako: I gave him to you. Kozei: shIT! NAGITO WHERE ARE YOU? Miwako: HE'S A BABY! HE'S NOT GONNA ANSWER!

The two of them find him later comfortably on a cushion that fell on the floor.

Because they work so much, they had to arrange for someone to care for Nagito while they were away. They had housekeepers and other staff to help who they paid well for their efforts. (They could certainly afford to, and they weren’t stingy with their money.) A lot of Nagito’s time was spent with a caretaker, but when his parents were home, they doted on him. They loved him very much. Nagito thought the world of them. He couldn’t wait for his parents to get home so he could tell them about his day.

They taught him as much as they could, and he learned some of their behaviors. A lot of Nagito’s body language mirrors Miwako’s, and his excitement about things he’s passionate about reflects Kozei’s. They weren’t in his life for long, but he had a close bond with them. They spent time with him and took him fun places when they had days off so they could all bond.

I wanted to compile some of the funny scenarios I’ve thought of, so here’s a one.

Kozei: Your mother works hard. Without her, I'd be some idiot rambling about science and probably homeless. Nagito: But science is cool. Kozei: I KNOW RIGHT?!

Another where Miwako is teaching Nagito what to do in case of an emergency.

Miwako: What would you do if you found me or your father on the floor and we wouldn't wake up? Nagito: Go to the kitchen and eat whatever I want. Kozei: *snorting*

And one last one after Miwako actually cooks dinner.

Miwako: How was it? Nagito: *not impressed* It tasted bad. Kozei: That's very mean. She went through all the trouble to cook for you. Say something nice about it. Nagito: Thanks, Mama, for trying.

These are just examples of the dynamic and how they’re pretty normal parents.

Their Death

I did way too much research about this vacation they went on. I looked at the location, what things people could do there, and what kind of flights needed to be taken. The last time I checked, it took...three different flights to get from Tokyo to San Cristóbal. (I can’t check right now flights right now are sketchy. Future Tiki who survived the pandemic, fact check me.) It’s a lot of flying.

There’s not a definitive answer as to whether this was right after they landed or right before they took off. I like to think it was the latter because I hate happiness. What’s better than a nice, fun vacation that ends with dead parents? (Heavy sarcasm.) I’m going to go with that.

The basics are that the plane was hijacked and a meteorite the size of a fist killed the hijackers and also Nagito’s parents. The truth of the situation is muddied mostly due to the fact that Nagito only provides that much information. He likely blocked out that memory and is going off of what he’s been told. This is just my take on it, but I imagine his information is so, for lack of a better word, flat because he doesn’t want to remember the situation first hand. His explanation is like that of an outsider, not someone who was there in real time. That and he was a child. (For the record, I place him at about 7 or 8.)

My interpretation of events is as follows. The plane was hijacked still on the runway. The passengers are afraid. These two have a young child they want to protect. They were probably fairly close to the hijackers since we don’t have the details of anyone else being hurt in this situation, though I do think it’s possible there were more.

In order to protect their child, maybe they tried to reason with the hijackers. Maybe they wanted to resolve things peacefully so everyone could go home and the hijackers could get a lesser punishment. Either way, both parties were killed, and Nagito became an orphan.

Now this child not even in double digits is in a different country, his parents just died in front of him, there’s strangers all over the place, and there’s a whole investigation likely happening. He’s terrified and alone. These people are talking around him, and a lot of what they’re saying doesn’t make sense. (Whether it’s the language barrier or just because he’s too young to understand doesn’t matter. Maybe it’s both.) Just imagine how scary that would be.

Imagine this tiny child saying he just wants his mom and dad and that he wants to go home. It’s heartbreaking.

How Nagito Copes With It

I’ve said it several times, but I’m going to put it all right here to make sure my thoughts are together.

Nagito tells Hajime that this event gave him his independence. It was one of the first incidents that showed him his “luck cycle” in action. In hindsight, he sees this event as more evidence that yes this is what’s happening. He looks back on it as a positive to protect himself. He was the last person left in his family, all alone. I like to imagine there were still people who worked in and around the home, but as a whole, he was by himself.

Without fully realizing it, as he grew older, Nagito ended up dealing with this grief by burying the happier memories. He built up this narrative that his parents were indifferent to him in order to avoid mourning them. The reason he doesn’t talk about them, what he says about his mother, how nonchalant he is when he mentions what happened? It’s his way of keeping himself safe. If he thinks of them as people who didn’t have an attachment to him, he won’t miss them. He won’t feel sad.

To put it simply, Nagito fabricated a narrative where his loving parents weren’t as loving in order to keep from feeling the pain of losing them and not having them there as he grew up.

There you have it. That’s the long, in-depth post about Nagito’s parents! If you read through the whole thing, thanks! I’m still nervous about posting it, so hit me up if you have any opinions or ideas or if you want me to talk more about things!

[enccrypted]

Can be used for RP and non-RP blogs to get to know a bit about the person behind the screen!

1. FIRST NAME:  my name is something else, but I actually do more commonly go by jun nowadays in my day-to-day life!

2. STRANGE FACT ABOUT YOURSELF:  as a child i rode a bicycle into my aunt’s pool because I have no sense of foresight even though avoiding diving into the pool was the EASIEST thing to figure out in that moment. And riding a bike in a pool is illegal in California, so :( Please don’t call the cops on me

3. TOP THREE PHYSICAL THINGS YOU FIND ATTRACTIVE ON A PERSON:  A lot of my partners I’ve dated on sheer basis of their personality, but... lean? not necessarily super slender but I personally tend towards slimmer builds, I think? And I also really like nice eyes and hands... and I love voices I find soothing and nice to listen to!! Sound is a hate or love thing for me, so if I hear a certain sound or string of sounds I like, I can get stuck on it. And likewise if a sound is just unbearable to me, it sends my brain into fucky spirals. So that’s why I have certain songs on loop for weeks on end, because when I like a certain type of sound, I want it in my ears constantly.

4. A FOOD YOU COULD EAT FOREVER AND NOT GET BORED OF:  these spicy noodles 🍜 they’re called buldak bokkeum myeon, hot chicken ramyeon 😋

5. A FOOD YOU HATE:  I’m actually five years old, so vegetables can get the fuck off my plate. Most of the time they just have some weird textures that I cannot handle in my mouth. I feel like it’d be better if I owned a blender and could make smoothies out of some of them, but that’s a plan for the future when I can actually have full control over my own diet

6. GUILTY PLEASURE:  I love... to eat out... and to eat in general, but it’s hard to eat out a lot because it’s very expensive :( but then my opposite guilty pleasure is packaged ramen that’s cheap as shit... I’m a very inconsistent personality lmao

7. WHAT DO YOU SLEEP IN:  my pants and nothing else

8. SERIOUS RELATIONSHIPS OR FLINGS:  only serious relationships!! I mentally cannot make myself date a person if I haven’t been friends with them for at least a few months, optimally one or two years. I like to know the people I end up dating and feel comfortable around them, really know them before I even think about taking it a step further. Being good friends with a person, talking a lot with them, and feeling that I can speak to them as a partner AND a friend with whom I would trust my secrets (and therefore be honest with them about anything!) is so wildly important to me. And also I just don’t trust like that.

9. IF YOU COULD GO BACK IN THE PAST AND CHANGE ONE THING ABOUT YOUR LIFE, WOULD YOU AND WHAT WOULD IT BE:  so many things. I think about it constantly. My most common daydreams and things I imagine as I lie in bed at night is somehow waking up with my current day mind in the body of my younger self and just living life differently. But I’m sure a lot of us would tweak a thing or two, regardless of whether they’re subtle or hugely impacting, and in reality it’s just not going to happen. So while I’m not “happy” with where I am, I’m at least happy with my efforts and where I’m trying to go from here on out!

10. ARE YOU AN AFFECTIONATE PERSON:  It’s tough to get me to that point, as in I’m really picky with whom I choose to get closer to just based on compatibility, how much I initially feel I’ll be comfortable around a certain person, etc. But once I get to a status of friendship, I’m very free with affection :’) maybe too much? I drop a lot of “I love you”s and I occasionally make a fuss over the people I care about, but only to make sure they’re okay or something. Not overbearing!! I think... sometimes i accidentally say “babe/baby” to my friends and I realise two seconds later that it’s fucking weird but . can’t cry over spilt milk lmao

11. A MOVIE YOU COULD WATCH OVER AND OVER AGAIN:  I’m not a “watch a movie again” type of person because it takes me actually wanting to watch a movie, then making the conscious decision to invest the time in sitting down and watching it... so a song I like! because I can multitask while listening to music and it doesn’t take any huge commitment for 2-7 minute songs: Scenes from an Italian Restaurant. I could listen to most of Billy Joel’s songs on repeat for days, though.

12. FAVORITE BOOK:  My favourite books switch around because I always discover something new, then turn around and go straight back to an old book I used to love after rereading it... over the years I most strongly remember loving: Crime and Punishment, The Great Gatsby, and Howl’s Moving Castle! 

13. YOU HAVE THE OPPORTUNITY TO KEEP ANY ANIMAL AS A PET, WHAT DO YOU CHOOSE:  I want a cat really badly! I do have a stray cat that I hang out with at my school, but that just isn’t the same as having one of my own! And I’ve always wanted a snake since I was a wee bab so, someday, when I’m moved out and financially stable 🐍

14. TOP FIVE FICTIONAL SHIPS [IF YOU ARE AN RP BLOG, YOU CAN USE YOUR OWN SHIPS AS WELL]:  TWO OF MY FAVOURITES ARE WITH JAY: his higgs (death stranding, goldenmasked) and his revenant (iidolum)... I didn’t start off writing with either of them with huge shipping intentions in mind, but I’ve got some plots with him that are my favourite... 😭😭 other than that, cryptane, cryptage, and gibraltar/crypto! That’s five right there.

15. PIE OR CAKE:  it’s illegal to make me make decisions like this. I don’t even like cake and pie that much but when I’m in the mood for either one, they’re equally good. I can choose flavours though: apple pie and chocolate cake.

16. FAVORITE SCENT:  Gasoline? Cigarette smoke? Those are bad for me especially since I’m asthmatic, but they’re really the only thing that come to mind. AND also this oil because it smells vividly of childhood. I still have a bottle I use from time to time.

17. CELEBRITY CRUSH:  I’m not really feeling any right now... but George Michael was always such a cutie :’) 

18. IF YOU COULD TRAVEL ANYWHERE, WHERE WOULD YOU GO:  I want to go home to Australia for a bit, and visit Vietnam again (don’t remember when I last went because I was too small...). Canada, maybe?

19. INTROVERT OR EXTROVERT:  a mix of the two, but currently feeling very introvert.

20. DO YOU SCARE EASILY:  it depends on my mood. I’m either really finicky and easily scared by anything if I’m on edge, or my brain just shuts off and blocks out the whole function of terror so when something happens, I’m just like. yeah??

21. IPHONE OR ANDROID:  android and not interesting in ever switching off.

22. DO YOU PLAY ANY VIDEO GAMES:  this is a blog for a video game character!!

23. DREAM JOB:  I’m chasing a career in psychiatry and I might someday return to mechanical engineering.

24. WHAT WOULD YOU DO WITH A MILLION DOLLARS:  buy a nice small place somewhere!! fund the rest of my education on my own! give some of the money to my friends!!! fill my savings account to the brim!

25. FICTIONAL CHARACTER YOU HATE:  im trying so hard to think of a character that i hate, but I’ve mostly enjoyed the character cast of everything I’ve watched/read/played lately. life’s too short, and so is my memory, for me to remember anything that hasn’t occurred in the past few months. at the least, it makes me a much happier man so, win for me ;)

26. FANDOM THAT YOU WERE ONCE A PART OF BUT AREN’T ANY LONGER:  hate to admit it, but I used to be a Hetalia fan. Lmao. Some of the worst people I met there, but I also met my ex-girlfriend in the fandom, and we made fangames for it together :’) one of my favourite memories of younger years.

TAGGED BY:  i stole it from one of jay’s blogs... my big brain can’t remember which but go follow him on both higgs and revenant anyway

TAGGING:  @deathchasing, @mircoy

[claire-starsword]

Also I act like a big Mega Evolution maniac but to be clear, I think it was a very awkward idea to tie the mechanic to specific different stones for every pokemon. Like, that’s so many items. So many stuff to gather and scroll through. 

I understand the technical idea of “hey let’s limit the mega evolution’s power by not letting them hold items” but, that could have been a simple ban. Or create a general mega stone. You could even even the field a bit if it was like the Awakening emera in PSMD, where any Pokemon using it gets stronger, and those who can mega evolve get the new form on top of that. 

You could even take more pages from PSMD’s book and let first stage Pokemon temporarily evolve, but I admit that’s a tough one to control. If the item was unlocked too early in the game you would have super strong starters wrecking the game’s difficulty. You would have to create a way to decide which evo a Pokemon turns into when they have multiple options. Eevee would be hell, both to program in and to fight. The most unpredictable creature in the battlefield. Still, a valid idea for fanworks.

It does feel a bit overwhelming to have a single item give you so much power at once, so I think there should be some requirement for a Pokemon to be able to mega evolve. A test or a quest of some sort, or maybe maximizing affection and happiness, since you’re supposed to bond with Pokemon to be strong anyway. Really pile up that power of friendship. Competitive playing already requires training to lv.100 and effort training and all that, an extra task wouldn’t be much.

Extremely self indulgent and unrealistic add-on: would be fantastic lorewise if Mega Evolutions were all unique depending on the trainer’s view of their Pokemon and their bond. Yes it is impossible to put such a thing in a game but when thinking up comics, fanfics and RPs? A delicious bonus, just go wild. If Ash and Pikachu can have their particular Z-move so can you, and that goes for megas too.

[prkrearchive]

hey there demons! it me, sam ( she / her, 21, est timezone ) who also writes elvie the spooky nerd and i’m super excited to bring in an old fave muse of mine! i’ve had this IDIOT forever, but i’ve tried to revamp him a little to fit this lovely rp & i’ve given him a new fc! anyway, details are under the cut, so feel free to check those out & then message me @elvvce if you’d like to plot!

DISCLAIMER: this is a sideblog so i might post stuff to the wrong acc sometimes js

so, this guy right here…riley ignatius parker-warrington…will throw hands if you call him anything other than parker. it’s what everyone calls him. you gotta be really special to call him riley and not immediately get decked for it. tbh most people probably think parker is his first name anyway so! moving on

parker was born to a wealthy family in a small but affluent village called alderley edge in cheshire, england. he’s the youngest of four sons so he has three older brothers.

his family, the parker-warringtons ( known more commonly as the warringtons ) are stupid rich. it hurts me to think about it askdh. they’re basically the british rockefellers. parker’s great x6 granddad started the family business back a couple centuries ago and nowadays they’ve got their hands in everything from business to architecture to real estate to education to oil...they own a lot of stuff. the warrington building in downtown london was completely made up just now is basically the rockefeller center of the uk. 

the family drama has been highly publicized in the uk & europe for longer than anyone can remember at this point, but not as much in america. 

anyway, parker spent his early years sheltered and pampered and homeschooled by tutors and nannies bc his parents never had time for him but it’s whatever he got over it really early on in life.

parker’s always been a huge troublemaker with a restless nature so his wealthy, uptight, lowkey shady af parents who are obsessed with the family’s image could never really deal with him and eventually decided to just ship him off to boarding schools all over europe, just one after the other after the other bc he kept getting kicked out lmao.

about the only thing he enjoyed about his childhood and schooling were his music lessons. he was taught to play piano, violin, and even the harp. other things like math and history and science didn’t come easily to him at all, but music? he was great at it and he’s always loved it. during his teen years while away at boarding school was when he first procured an electric guitar and learned to play. along with that, he also discovered punk music, aka the greatest thing in the entire fucking universe if you ask him. far as music goes, he’d found his calling in his early teenage years.

at school he was basically that rebellious kid in all the movies who wore doc martens with his prim & proper school uniform and carried around a pocket knife and cut class to go smoke while vandalizing school property and would absolutely fuck up some prissy pretty boy’s face just for looking at him the wrong way.

literally the only reason he actually graduated rather than flunking out was because his father was able to pull some strings aka bought his very last boarding school a whole new library wing. parker did actually consider running away a few times, but there was a part of him really reaaaaally deep down that actually enjoyed some aspects of school ( though he very strongly believes many education systems across the world need a serious overhaul and blahblahblah don’t ask him unless you want a lecture ). anyway, the moment he was done with school, he did finally skip out on…well, everything and everyone and ditched the country altogether, heading out first to seattle washington, then to los angeles, california, and then he finally settled in new york city when he was twenty years old, meaning that he’s lived in nyc for the last three years!

started his band, rabid porcupine, right after moving to the city. they’re a punk band, popular among the subculture and virtually unknown to everyone else. parker is the lead vocalist, guitarist, songwriter, overall face of the band but don’t get it twisted he could never go solo his whole band is important to him.

his parents have threatened to cut him off & disinherit him about a billion times but will probably never actually do it even though they see him as a huge disgrace to the family name. they call sometimes but he never picks up. if anybody asks he’d probably say that he hates his family but he honestly doesn’t. i don’t think he’s capable of hate lmao. he doesn’t like them and he’d rather stay away from them bc he and his family just do not get along, but at the end of the end of the day, v deep down he has like….a teeny tiny molecule of affection for them even though his family is 100% genuinely awful people

lemme...stop? and just give you a few quick facts bc this is getting super long who’s even still reading this?

looks like he could kill you and could actually kill you

he hasn’t been home in like five years but he still has the heaviest most posh british accent you will ever hear in your life + he knows he’s fulfilling a stereotype here but he doesn’t care he fuckin loves tea

his three older brothers are named sebastian, nikolai, & rian. he doesn’t get along with any of them but he and rian he by far has the worst relationship with rian, his identical twin who’s a few minutes older. unlike most stereotypical twins they’ve literally never been in sync, have never gotten along and have probably beaten each other up before.

his family is big on modern day arranged marriages but you can miss parker with that bullshit he will date whoever he wants

that being said i think he’s probably...straight? idk tho & like who’s really straight anymore honestly

most people think that he’s a jerk bc he’s incredibly standoffish and temperamental but he’s actually...not that bad? like he’s sure he’s permanently grumpy but he also holds the door open for people and says thank you to janitors and probably helps old ladies across the street and would literally rather die than be rude to wait staff in a restaurant

seemingly very passionate about everything always openly expresses his emotions. he doesn’t...know how to hide them? he doesn’t know how to pretend like he doesn’t care?

adrenaline junkie, reckless af & likes to party but isn’t into hard drugs. he’s tried once or twice but just really isn’t a fan. he smokes & drinks & smokes weed sometimes but that’s it

very observant and good at reading people

basically the walking talking rl embodiment of the jerk with a heart of gold trope.

knows he’s not the easiest person to befriend but if you are his friend, then he’s gonna be loyal af, the realest ride or die of all time

however, he tends to take the tough love route when he’s trying to help someone out. like just bc you’re his friend he’s not gonna coddle you bc you’re upset he’s gonna tell you how to how to deal with your problems & emotions

which is funny bc lmao he’s angry af 1000% of the time. will throw hands anytime anywhere

so to the surprise as nobody he took up boxing as a kid and to this day it’s the only sport he cares about at all. he still boxes once or twice a week as a hobby & it’s probs pretty good for him tbh

also took a lot of music lessons back in the day. he’s actually a very talented pianist who probably could’ve gone on to play professionally if he stuck with it but nah. he likes the guitar. you’ll probs never catch him playing the piano which is a shame bc he honestly is a beautiful pianist :/

worked as an auto mechanic before he committed to his band full time but highkey misses it sometimes. he still likes cars & absolutely loves motorcycles, will talk about them all day with you if you want.

he has a motorcycle which pretty much built it himself from scratch and it’s just…it’s literally his child ok he will freak if you so much as lay a hand on his motorcycle ok /f r e a k/ like don’t even look at it the wrong way

feminist af

parker is grumpy and angry and standoffish but look he really is and really tries to be a decent guy. anyone who knows him well would see that very clearly and honestly, that’s probably why they stick around even though he can be difficult.

since this is officially a novel i think it’s time for me to sTOP LMAO. i have no specific wc in mind but i’d love to plot so please feel free to message me if you’re interested! as always i’m super excited to plot and write with everyone!

[anigraham]

I need to vent about my in-person D&D group...

I was going to do this on /r/DND, but feel like I am whining and crying to strangers.  I don’t know why, it feels more comfortable to do it here.  I really just need to get this off my chest somewhere.  It’s going to be a lot of whining that you don’t need to read.

This group of mine isn't at a place where we can handle a heavy/serious story campaign right now.  We tried and it didn't work for multiple reasons.  But still wanting to play we decided to do just a fun and long dungeon crawl in Pathfinder.  We usually do this sort of thing between story campaigns.  It's just a fun way to try new things and sort of "resets" our mind for a new serious campaign.

This time around two players had the idea that we should all play something different.  (I mentioned this in my character block post.)  Something out of our comfort zone or something other players hadn't seen us play.  We all agreed it would be fun.  We talked as a group and went around saying what type of character we should try to build.  What we were supposed to end up with...

A sorcerer for the player who has never played a magic user ever.

A tough half-orc full martial class fighter for the powergamer who tends to play “dainty” female elves and weird classes/builds.

A *serious* bard for the player who wants to try bard but who always play joke characters.

An arcane trickster for me.

A healer focused character for the player who has never been a healer.

And a "Whatever you want but try something simple/basic." for the new player.

A druid for the player who we’ve never seen play any type of nature-focused character ever.

(Yeah.  A lot of characters but it’s a dungeon crawl, we have a new player, and Adem (the DM) is making a character so that at some point the healer can “switch” and trying DMing because she wants to give it a go.)

We’re all starting at level 5 if you’re curious.

And of course that isn't what we ended up with.  One of our players is a min-maxer and powergamer which, in my opinion, has never been a problem in this group.  Our DM is pretty good with creating combats and situations that works well with whatever our party ends up as and so even with one optimized character it isn’t too bad.  A lot of the time this powergamer plays very feminine and "dainty" women which is why we gave him the half-orc.  He was pretty upset at the idea of playing a martial fighter as that's "boring," but it is Pathfinder so there is 9,001 classes to choose from.

He ended up building a STR 8 half-orc fighter who uses DEX and has insane AC.  Which the rest of us players thought, “That’s fucking bullshit.” but what can we do?  So now the highest STR character in the party probably has a STR of 10 or 12.  For a dungeon fucking crawl.  As a side note, the new player is his girlfriend and so he built her character for her and also got her to have insane AC.

The player behind the healer decided then she would build a fighter instead...and really built a heavy hitter.  So what we actually ended up with...

Three extremely optimized characters.  Two who have insane AC and one that does insane damage.  No proper healer.  A buffing bard, a sorcerer, a rogue/wizard, and a shape shifting druid. 

And now I am sitting here thinking:  We should have rolled stats and maybe that would have helped some.  I now see why RP-focused players hate powergamers so much and why powergamers hate RP-focused players.  I mean I subscribe to the idea that there is “no wrong way” to play D&D and it’s just that some people get enjoyment out of different things.  But having a larger mix of people solely focused on numbers and mechanics with a handful of players who consider RP flavor more...It can really fuck with the combat side of things.

Adem has only had to deal with one optimized character in every party setup...but currently he has three.  Adem has been venting his frustration to me and saying he doesn’t know what to do.  Anything that works well for the high AC characters will probably get obliterated by the high damage character.  Anything good for the high damage character risks just killing a lot of us.  And even if he figures out a good setup that accounts for the three optimized characters, there’s two characters who are more better for skills sitting there who wouldn’t be able to contribute much in a meaningful way.  Even in the combats he ran for us in the first session, many times I felt absolutely helpless and I can see this as only continuing. Plus our poor bard who tried buffing people and only upset both the fighters.

Now Adem is talking about needing to sit down with the group and expressed this with everyone.  And I am gritting my teeth about this.

People were pretty upset when it was brought up that “We can’t seem to play a serious story-heavy campaign right now.”  So now I am just bracing myself for what the reaction will be when Adem brings up the concern that this party make-up is...not so great.  I mean one of the many reasons we felt like we couldn’t handle the story campaign was Adem’s job keeps him super busy and he can’t devote enough time to prepare.  He thought doing a dungeon crawl where he can whip out the monster manual and throw random beasties at us would be easy enough...except he can’t with this party makeup.  He’s actually having to sit down and really consider numbers, tactics, and abilities to come up with combats.  

And I just.  I don’t know where I am going with this.  There is actually a lot of tangentially related stuff that is bothering me and talking about bits and pieces of those things to people just hasn’t been helping.  

I keep thinking I should just write a story.  I would enjoy that more.

[amonsaiqaxiv]

                                                                                GROWTH & GRATITUDE

When Heavensward launched I was in a pretty awkward point in-game. I wasn’t entirely too invested in XIV or in MMO’s in general. The group I played with was a mix of old-school MMO WoW veterans and die-hard FF fans. I wasn’t exactly mechanic savvy nor too enthralled in the lore behind this game. I was put in a weird spot, to say the least. I couldn’t help but feel out of place with both the friends I had and the giant community sprawled out before me. It took...countless fucking hours of throwing my head against content, seeking guidance from other players, and fighting against my own ignorance to get comfortable playing this game.  Around that time, I had also stumbled across the XIV community here on Tumblr through a friend. Our community is a vast fucking place and I felt extremely overwhelmed at first. Like, I can barely interact with people in-game as it is, man. I had no clue how things worked on this end. However, one thing I was quickly able to latch onto were screenshot edits. I’d had....many...many years of experience with this concept back when I was roleplaying (on Myspace of all things). It was after this little rediscovery that I found my niche here and the rest of it is pretty self-explanatory. Fast forward two(ish) years later and things have changed. I love this damn game guys, I really do. Being able to experience new content, striving to improve both job and player skill is such a damn thrill for me. I’m confident in what I can offer as a player and I’m constantly excited for new opportunities to grow.

As for this blog, oh man...I never in a million years expected this to be where it’s at today. I really just used this blog to selfishly post screenshots and fuck man....the response has just been so overwhelmingly wonderful. 

Look, I’ve never been particularly good at expressing my feelings, ESPECIALLY not through writing. Things come a bit more naturally through speech but most of the time? I keep to myself outside of my small circles and even then I tend to internalize my anxieties onto myself. It’s tough conveying my thoughts into words since my mind tends to race around. However, despite these difficulties, one thing that’s always come naturally to me is the ability to express gratitude. I am so damn thankful to those of you who have had a hand in helping me grow both as a player and as a member of this community. So before we trudge off into expansion, I wanted to draft something up to commemorate the time I’ve spent with each of you:

Thank you to everyone I’ve met within or because of @theriskbreakers : @sylvan-rain @onwesterlywinds @crimson-bull @thefateofivalice @a-kelping-hand @moonlifter @safestsephiroth @thecat-inthehat @afflatus-solace @reflectionsofacreator @quartercirclejab @the-goggles-lizard @wandererspaean @ivaan-ffxiv @tovakiin @zulak-rah @jenesislabariel @twelvesavethequeen @wyranimh @cogflox @varae-ver-you-are (I’m sure I’m missing tons more, sorry.)

Seriously, guys, it’s been a while since I first stumbled through the Sandsea’s doors but it’s been a blast. Thank you for always making things feel at home despite the fact that RP isn’t really my thing. Whether we’re blitzing through content or goofing off in chat it’s been wonderful and I can’t wait to see what Stormblood has to offer for us.

Thank you to my raid static for 3.X: @khojin-arulaq @sessionzeroart @evrett

Though frustrating at times, raiding with you all was overall an experience I wouldn’t trade for the world. It’s such a unique feeling when shit got challenging and we still managed to pull through. I’m grateful to you guys for what we did and value the friendships we made throughout. 

Thank you to @zenathered @kukurubean @foewreckem @korpokkur-kid @yaianse (and the whole turtle crew really) as well as @fatewalker @nyxastra @coeurlfist for being great enough to show off how awesome people on other servers can be. It’s been fun befriending each of you either through tumblr or whenever you nerds decide to log onto your respective alts. 

Thank you to @ladyrivienne @ferai-caolann @lavenderrpurr @manawalls @alannah-corvaine @abalathian @qarajin-borlaaq for being some of the downright best art motivation I’ve got. I’m pushing myself to improve constantly whenever any of you create something. It’s inspirational and that drive to improve you’ve given me is a debt I could never repay. 

Thank you to @sins-of-allag @ayyymeric @aether-eyes @dayst-ffxiv @lauranis @lunae-lux  @xaruun @invisiblebounds-ffxiv @fair-fae @lance-of-fury @tetenuko @tiergan-vashir @freshorenjuice @aethericseafarer @nightmaze @necrologos @sequoiaofeorzea @gaeliseeker @nalukaixiv @pygmaioi for a myriad of reasons between all of you. Thank you for being super supportive of both myself and the blog. For lending out a helping hand (or keeping my head out of my ass) and just for being good friends in and out of game.

Thank you to @mahnsturr @raelcsart @yalakid @dantroziman @doorway-through @fainfaineant for all the fun I’ve had with each of you in GRIMM. Thank you for all the great art of Amon and thank you so much Rae for taking care of my Alex’s ass. <3

THANK YOU TO MY MOTHERFUCKING DISCORD: @haila-wetyios @luma-lee @naveiasue @lyriahkarnelle @sharlayan-scholar @desertsaffron FOR PUTTING UP WITH ALL THE UNADULTERATED BAT-SHIT CRAZY NONSENSE THAT OCCURS IN THERE EACH DAY. It gets absolutely fucking wild sometimes in Unlimited Chat Works and I am fucking blessed that you guys still manage to put up with my bullshit. Whether we’ve been friends since the beginning or you’re just now realizing how crazy we are in there thank you. I love you guys with all my fucking heart and I have so much fun every single day in there with each of you. 

Thank you, @koidrakevice you fucker for so, so, much. For all the times we’ve spent late at night theory-crafting, grinding, researching, just...playing XIV. None of this would have happened if you hadn’t gotten me back into the game. I’ve grown so much because of you and being able to do content our way with you and Douglas is genuinely the thing I look forward to the most in Stormblood. Thank you, buddy, for being one of the best friends I’ve ever had and for playing XIV with me. It means more than you know and more than I’ll ever fucking admit because fuck you. 

Thank you always, @fishtailsushi I love you the world over and playing XIV together with you is something I’ll remember for the rest of our lives. You’ve grown so much in this game and in many aspects, you’re a far better player than I am. Thank you for continuing to stand with me and in making memories with all of our crazy friends. Thank you for pushing me to do better and supporting me through all of my doubts in-game and in real life. I love you poop, and thank you.~

Finally... thank you to everyone who’s been a part of the journey thus far. I’m not sure where things will end up in Stormblood, but I can promise you that I’m going to continue to improve, both as a player and a member of this crazy community. So if you’ve made it this far, take to heart that regardless of our differences, we’re all in this together. Fuck whatever discourse may pop up and just try to have fun and focus on all the good around you because as you can see, this place full of love, you’ve just got to open yourself up to it.-

Take care, and I’ll see you in Stormblood.

Patrick Amon.

[nckclrk]

The X Card and the Question of Safe and Healthy Roleplay

I started GMing a week ago. Two players and I are refugees so to speak of a game that made us uncomfortable. That game was a second edition (2e) D&D campaign. This one is fifth edition. I call myself a GM rather than a DM because the way I game incorporates elements of a lot of different systems;  I run D&D because it’s the system I’m able to get players on board for.

I introduced the X Card, and, gratifyingly, my players took to it quickly. The players who had been through the 2e campaign pounced on it more eagerly than the new players.

There’s a lot that turns me off about Dungeons and Dragons in particular. Its older editions seem to both appeal to and reinforce regressive opinions and behavior. From misogynistic depictions of women to racial characteristics that barely veil real world prejudices to a presumption that violence is the right answer to any given problem. 

I’ve heard the word “grognard” used to describe the stereotypical cishet white male roleplayer whose participation in the hobby relates to casual bigotry that reinforces the insularity of gaming. It’s a phenomenon I want to avoid in my own game, and it’s the main reason we left that 2e game. If someone reads this who uses the term “grognard” with pride, I’d like to hear from you since I’ve only heard it in this context, and don’t want to misrepresent a concept I don’t fully understand.

5e is better, but it’s not perfect, and no collection of game mechanics and setting elements ensure a table culture that supports emotionally safe and healthy roleplay. The initial X Card discussion doesn’t ensure that either. But it makes it okay - you could say it grants permission - for the the people around the table to take care of one another and to value each other’s enjoyment more highly than they value the mechanical or rhetorical elements of gameplay.

When I started thinking of myself as a GM, I knew that I wanted a different table culture than I had been getting at the 2e campaign. At that campaign the culture was polite. We would politely put up with the things that made us uncomfortable and politely take the person aside after the fact or send a polite email to ask for some adjustment. It did not work. Maybe the key to emotional health is to figuratively put your elbows up on the gaming table and tuck your character sheet into your collar.

My first glimmer of a direction toward this was hearing @helloalexroberts on the Critical Success podcast suggest asking players for consent to scenes involving sex before roleplaying them. I eagerly drafted an email to my players based on the FRIES acronym propounded by @plannedparenthood, asking for consent to, just everything. It wasn’t great, and I didn’t ultimately use it, but I was excited by the prospect of starting a game with an agreement that everyone was in this to help everyone else have fun. I’ll paste the draft below.

In accordance with my previous exhortation that the gaming table be a safe place, and my enthusiastic embrace of the notion that the most important rule of RP is "If you're having fun you're doing it right," I'm putting out a request for consent. I'm actually really excited about this because it's about everyone being invested in everyone else having fun. Knowing as I do that - between the PCs and NPCs - our game world includes sexuality, violence, violence against animals, violence against children, domestic violence, sexual violence, racism, sexism, heterosexism, cissexism and other possible triggers, I'm going to ask for each of us to affirmatively consent to playing in this world. In doing so I will make the stipulation that I intend to explore potentially triggering issues inasmuch as I think they serve the interest of the narrative, and to the extent that I feel capable of treating them with appropriate sensitivity. I'm going to use the FRIES acronym: Consent is Freely given: feel no pressure to consent. If you don't consent, you'll be no less welcomed at the table. Consent is Revocable: consenting now doesn't allow anyone later to say "you already consented so you have to bear with us during this scene." You should be able to discover your boundaries dynamically and know that the rest of us are here to support that discovery. Consent is Informed: I'm doing my best now to point out the kinds of potentially triggering issues that might come up, but I'll also try without spoiling any surprises to lead up to potentially triggering scenes and activities in a way that gives everyone an opportunity to check in. Please try to do the same with your character and narration. Consent is Enthusiastic: if you feel like you're just going along with an uncomfortable scene or discussion to be polite with the other players, then the rest of us are doing it wrong. It's not consent if you're doing it only for the sake of the other people at the table while you have a rough time. Consent is Specific: this ties back to 'I' - you should know what you're in for and be genuinely on board for that.What should you do if you realize that you're not up for what's going on at the table? I think every situation needs room to for its own response. Let the rest of us know you need a break, and based on the situation, we'll work together to find a way to go forward.The upswing of all this is that we should all be able to expect that everyone else at the table is as invested in you having a great time as you are.

There’s a lot wrong with this, and I needed feedback. I didn’t have anyone to ask for that kind of feedback apart from the actual players it was directed at, so I put it on reddit. You can probably find the discussion if you look for it there. I got some really valuable feedback mixed in with exasperated dismissals of any kind of considerateness. I wound up in a pretty painful place wanting to get at the useful feedback but not willing to expose myself to the hurtful stuff it was mixed up in. Ultimately I at least took away some perspective. I had been most excited by Revocability and mutual care, but a reader would first see me asking for players to consent to a lot of icky stuff.

So I went back to the X Card. There were a lot of reasons I had given the X Card a pass on the first glance, but compared to my clunky email draft, it was looking better and better. You can find John Stavropoulos’ introductory discussion of the X Card and an explanation of why he says each thing the way he does at the link above. I wrote my own intro, trying to keep the intent but suit our circumstances better. Here’s an approximation of what I said:

Rule number one is that each of us is here to help everyone else have fun. This is the X Card. It will sit right here in the middle of the table. If anything feels uncomfortable, pick it up or tap it. If you can’t reach it, make an X with your fingers of just shout “X Card!”. You don’t need to explain why. You can if you want, either privately or with the group.

It may sound weird but a lot of GMs say it helps facilitate amazing games. I fully expect to be the most frequent X Carder, maybe even against myself.

I’ll say the X Card is specifically not a safe word: it’s not an excuse to push boundaries, but I was happy to find it because I know based on what you’ve told me about your characters and what I have planned for this campaign, there’s a potential for things to go in some pretty heavy directions.

That’s more or less what I said to the group, except that the players were so enthusiastically on board and we had so many side discussions about it that by the time I got to “It may sound weird” it sounded weird that I said it might sound weird, because the X Card now sounded like the most natural thing in the world. The sense I was getting was we’re all here to have fun, so of course we’ll play with an X Card.

I’ve seen some people dismissing the X Card, and I think I can boil down those arguments against it to three things: it’s patronizing; it’s unnecessary because there are better approaches; it’s unnecessary because you shouldn’t have material in your game that requires this kind of care.

On the subject of the X Card being patronizing, I think the people who make this assertion start from a place of not attempting to understand how the X Card would benefit them personally, or how it would benefit the overall culture of the gaming table. I’m guessing that the people who assume that the X Card is patronizing assume that it’s for other people: “this is something people include in their games for the younger players, for the female players,” etc. If you haven’t taken the time to see how it works as a tool to promote the culture of fun for everyone at the table and you consider it a way to provide a special set of training wheels that protect the people at your table who you assume are more sensitive, it’s patronizing almost by definition. If you are a good GM, you have to take into account the important role that you play in setting the tone for the players. Without a tool like the X Card, you can’t take it for granted that the other players around your table will respect your need to take care of yourself when it arises.

On the subject of there being better approaches, I feel like this is going to sound like I’m setting up a strawman, but I have genuinely heard this dumb idea suggested as a better approach to the X Card: “why not have anyone who has triggers tell you about them before the game?” Well, there’s a few reasons this dumb idea is dumb. First, if you’re self aware enough to know you have triggers, I would kind of be a huge jerk to ask you to sit down with all of them and dwell on them long enough to write them all down and email them to me. That's a lot of extra work specifically for people with a lot of tough shit, not to mention unnecessarily dredging up ugly personal shit. And that presumes that the X Card protects players from a predictable collection of narrative elements related to identifiable triggers. 

People who think that, I envy you your apparent lack of experience ever having been made uncomfortable by anything that wasn’t a very specific, clearly definable major life event related trauma. If an NPC has a name or characteristic that reminds you of an abuser, or a setting has elements that recall a tough event, it’s unlikely you would have thought to warn your GM about that. In the 2e campaign, most of what was making us uncomfortable wasn’t related to any particularly challenging subject matter, or to particular traumas in our pasts, it was rarely related to topics that appeared in the game diegesis. There weren’t predictable topics that would make us uncomfortable, but there was a manner a fellow player had of talking that squeezed in motes of bigotry or self importance that in aggregate were really uncool.

As an aside I want to say how much I value the simple use of the word “uncomfortable” in Stavropoulos’ introduction to the X Card. You don’t need to parse a term like “triggering” to understand that this card is for you.

On the supposition that roleplaying game settings should be free of challenging topics so that players can exercise power fantasies by going around being big heroes smashing monsters: this won’t ensure that a game is free of uncomfortable moments. For starters, see what I said two paragraphs ago about the unpredictability of what can make a roleplaying experience uncomfortable. 

There is an intimacy and a vulnerability to roleplay that can give it an emotional and psychological power that doesn’t exist in more passive art forms. Games tackling tough topics like Monsterhearts, My Life With Master, One Missed Call, It Was a Mutual Decision, Steal Away Jordan, Kagematsu and Dog Eat Dog acknowledge and embrace this aspect of roleplay. The existence of The O Card - which specifically states “this is uncomfortable, but I want to keep going” - indicates that there’s not just value to emotionally challenging roleplay, there’s a real desire to pursue it. The concept of Emotional Bleed - the flow of emotions between character and player - helps to explain both the value and the danger of the art form. 

I think the silence of older style RPGs like D&D on that power can make them dangerous. The violent “heroism” of OSR is part of what made me genuinely uncomfortable in the 2e campaign. For example, after getting a group of attacking bugbears to surrender and taking them prisoner, my character promised them a fair hearing in exchange for information that would help us. They provided the information. Another PC was then about to start killing the captive bugbears. My character intervened and stopped that from happening, but the player seemed genuinely baffled why I would do that. Without abhorrent acts on the part of your antagonists, your PCs are not heroes, they’re murderers and bigots, slaughtering monsters simply because they look ugly. I have a hard time allowing my “good” aligned character to continue working with someone like this without experiencing some pretty unpleasant bleed-through-feels that are still with me. So I think heroism and satisfying power play are not as easy or obvious as some GMs and players might think. Taking for granted that you’re heroic because you’re the protagonists of the story doesn’t work for me, though it might work for some,

Ultimately, though we haven’t played with it for more than a single session I already feel confident that playing with an X Card is a vastly superior experience to playing without any specified means of handling situations that become uncomfortable. I think it’s far from perfect, but I have been unable to find or imagine a superior tool. For now I will not play any tabletop RPG that does not include an X Card.

[eponymous-rose]

hey tipsy rose! (there is a liquor called tequila rose that tastes of strawberries, it is lovely) Q regarding Recent Developments: Are you like "OH NOOOO" abt Scanlan or "OHHH YESSSS GIMME DRAMA". I am vacillating between the two at a high speed.

I think that vacillating at a high speed is an excellent course of action in any and all circumstances and I feel I must now fight tequila rose for my namesake.

But seriously, I’m gonna squint and try to reply seriously and seriously and why is it so much fun to type the word seriously and oh boy this is gonna be tough but there is also another great ask in my askbox inbox that is this:

I would love to hear your thoughts on the recent developments of Scanlan’s drug use. It feels like such an interesting intersection of game mechanics and RP. Scanlan’s stats make it unlikely that even Vex could force information from him, leaving the burden to genuine RP persuasion in game (Gilmore's stats? But forcing that interaction seems contrived) I think part of the reason this is so engaging is that it seems a real possibility that Scanlan could withhold his struggles, if Sam so chooses.

Okay, this is a fantastic ask here and I’m gonna focus in and try to reply seriously despite it taking me five tries to spell “fantastic” up there.

I think this is a really interesting direction for things to go, in large part because it clearly startled all the other players---you can pinpoint the moments at which they all variously have their realization of “oh shit, he’s being serious about this”. Sam’s... difficult to read as a player, to say the least, because he’s so often the comic relief, but he’s clearly decided to go ahead and dive headfirst into this and see where it goes, and I’m very excited to see exactly where that is.

But you make an excellent point about the RP limitations in place here; one of the reasons Scanlan works as a comic-relief character is because his level of power right now is seriously frightening. He’s always been able to influence other party members, but now he can outright erase their memories. There have been little inklings of that in the past---when he was chatting with Craven Edge, Grog asked if he heard anything, and for a moment Scanlan said, “No.”

Scanlan has the potential to be... a lot of things in the next few weeks. He’s been drifting away from the group in much the same way that Percy started to a few months ago, and if he doesn’t find an anchor soon things could get pretty rough. And this group’s also so wary of metagaming that, especially with the absurdly high deception score, they could wind up looking the other way a bit too long because hey, it’s Scanlan, he’s always doing wacky things and this particular subplot has been played for laughs for ages already.

Anyway, this is one of my favorite things that can possibly happen in a D&D game: when you first start out playing with your friends, your characters are generally friends and get along because hey, you’re friends and you get along. But at a certain point you’re gonna get deep enough into your character’s headspace that hey, wait a minute, maybe this character isn’t gonna get along with my friends’ characters. It’s a weird perception shift that I think first started in this campaign with the Briarwood arc, and it’s part of why that arc felt so deep and weighty in comparison with the Underdark stuff; it stopped being a bunch of friends puppeting their wacky fantasy avatars and started being a bunch of friends slipping into completely different roles. 

Sam has generally until now been pretty content staying just on the edge of meta--if you get right down to it, it’s pretty tricky to work out exactly where Sam ends and Scanlan begins. He’s gone super into character in the past, but never really in scenes that actively implicate (and possibly imperil) other players. But now he’s diving into this character arc wholeheartedly and that’s gonna result in a bit of a paradigm shift.

Those were some big words and it actually hurt my head to type them properly. I had to take breaks to do jumping jacks. Thank you for those asks!

[mrgameandpie]

I’m having some Homestuck OC feels tonight, so time for ranty stuff!

As I look back on my time in the Homestuck OC/self-insert community, I see a pattern in the stories people made for their characters.  All of them had player vs player issues as either the core element that caused their session to fail or at least a strong element, occasionally with outside forces causing these issues.  Yet when it comes to Homestuck proper, more often than not the issue the characters ran into when it came to winning their various sessions wasn’t due to interpersonal problems with teammates, but rather that their session was inherently unwinnable.  I can only think of two fan sessions that used this element, one of them being the one that I made, and this addition really changes the narrative of the given situation.

The thing about The GamerWatchers, the group that I created based on myself and my friends, was that they weren’t supposed to win.  Every element of their game session was designed to cause failure.  They consisted of Thomas, the Sylph (Doc) of Hope, Jordan, the Page of Time, George, the Bard of Light, and Austin, the Seer of Heart.  All four of these characters are passive classes, which is basically like having an Overwatch team comprised of all five support characters and a Reinhardt, already a pretty critical issue.  It gets worse though when you consider that there are two aspects needed to win any game of SBURB: Time and Space.  They’ve got the Time player with Jordan, the aspect essentially acts as extra lives since if a member of the team makes a critical error, the Time player can go back and make sure the error does not occur.  Trying to get through SBURB without a Time player is like playing a super hard videogame, lets say Dark Souls, without ever dying once.  Sure, its possible, but it isn’t happening.  Space, however, is what this group lacks, and it might even be slightly more important.  The goal of SBURB is to create a new universe, and its the Space player’s job to physically create the new universe within the game world.  Their sector of the game is the only part with the materials needed to do so.  As such, without a Space player, the game basically just said “Hey, yeah, you know how this game is supposed to have a win condition?  Well you don’t get access to it.”

But somehow it still gets worse.

You see, SBURB tends to know when its created a session that can’t be won.  In this scenario, SBURB gave the GamerWatchers challenges that they really had no business overcoming.  The greatest of these was related to the Denizens.  Basically the final boss of every player’s section of the world, normally the Denizens could be fought and killed before accessing the endgame or they could be talked too and worked with.  Seeing as how all of our heroes here are passive classes designed to help others rather than engage in direct combat, it’d probably be best for them to work with their Denizens, right?  Well unfortunately the Denizens know these guys are doomed to fail, and the pacifist option is locked out in favor of a mercy kill!  Thus forcing our non-combat oriented heroes to fight the toughest foes in the game!  BUT WAIT!  IT STILL GETS WORSE!  Austin’s Denizen was none other than Yaldabaoth!  The toughest possible Denizen to obtain!  Normally this guy is reserved for strong fighters who particularly need a challenge, but that doesn’t describe any of The GamerWatchers, let alone Austin, its just another way this session was really screwing with the guys!

That wasn’t even all of the particularly ridiculous problems the guys faced, just the most major ones.  Here’s the thing though, The GamerWatchers overcame all of that stuff.  It wasn’t easy, but they banded together, they used the power of teamwork, friendship, trust, faith, literally harnessed the power every saturday morning cartoon moral in the book, and together the four of them played just about as perfectly as one possibly could.  They fought every foe, climbed every mountain, smashed every barrier, and when they got to the end...

...they still couldn’t finish the game.

When you look at most of the sessions created by other people, the group’s stories tend to go along the lines of “This person went crazy and sabatoged our chances at winning!” “We couldn’t trust eachother and everything fell apart.” “I wasn’t willing to work with the team when we needed to be together at most.”  All of these groups COULD have won, but they became too stressed, they didn’t believe in eachother, they didn’t work together as they were supposed to, and what could have been an entirely successful session fell to pieces.  It creates a very hopeless picture of humanity, that even the best of friends will go at eachothers’ throats when times get tough, that people can’t overcome their inner struggles, even when, or especially when, they’re needed most.  SBURB didn’t kill them off, they killed themselves off.

But The GamerWatchers had the opposite story.

The GamerWatchers did work together, they did overcome their problems, they did trust eachother, they did everything the game wanted them to as perfectly as it could ask of them, and they still didn’t win.  Because it wasn’t humanity that was hopeless, it was SBURB.  Sometimes, it doesn’t matter how well you play the game, you were never meant to win.  If SBURB decides you don’t get a Space player, that you don’t get access to the game’s win condition, then you don’t get access to the game’s win condition, and no amount of good gameplay will change that.

But then we get to one member of The GamerWatchers, my own self-insert, Thomas!  The Doc of Hope, with the power to use Hope to heal and to heal Hope!  Its that second ability that really comes into play here, the ability to heal Hope is quite the powerful one.  I always described it as the ultimate comeback mechanic, when things seem impossible, when there’s no way to get past an obstacle, the Doc of Hope comes in and heal the Hope of a situation, making what was once an impossible situation something he and his allies may be able to overcome.  It sounds pretty darn useful, right?  Here’s the thing though, Thomas never actually used this ability.  He never really got the hang of it, even after going god tier.  However, he still performed his job.  Something about the SBURB titles is that typically, before a player demonstrates their title’s abilities as powers, they’ll also demonstrate their abilities through more mundane actions in one way or another.  When it came to Thomas’s ability to heal Hope through mundane manners, well, he was probably the best Hope player one could find!

It happened frequently, Thomas would find a new blog with SBURB players much like himself.  They would have some issue that prevented them from winning, and Thomas would try to give advice.  Lo and behold, it was good advice, and the session would begin to turn around for the better!  A lot of these blogs didn’t last long, someone would set up a session for their fancharacters and probably just quit not long afterwards, so I never did get to see the long-term effects on most of the sessions Thomas helped, but I like to imagine the reason we never saw those blogs again is because, in-universe, Thomas’s advice helped them with their situation and they no longer needed the blog anymore, they were busy in a new universe getting things done!

Of course, the healer of Hope wouldn’t be doing that well of a job if he didn’t find a way to heal his OWN session’s Hope, and he did!  In fact, not only did he heal his own session’s Hope, but he also helped out at least another two sessions in the process!  When another group had effectively created a Genesis Frog, but failed to defeat the final boss of the game in time, the opposite of The GamerWatchers’ issue, the group with the Genesis Frog headed on over to Thoams’s session, alongside another few individuals who had issues of their own, and the two sessions completed one another, effectively finishing the game for a wide number of people all at once!

I don’t think I have anywhere else to go with this rant, just some nice memories of a good time I had in the Tumblr RP community.